The invention relates generally to welding systems and, more particularly, to welding systems having a configurable user interface disposed on a personal computer.
Welding is a process that has increasingly become ubiquitous in many industries. While such processes may be automated in certain contexts, a large number of applications continue to exist for manual welding operations performed by skilled welding technicians. Traditional process welding systems support a variety of processes, such as metal inert gas (MIG) welding, tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, stick welding, and so forth, which may operate in different modes, such as constant current or constant voltage. These power sources provide conditioned power for the welding application, and features of this provided power are governed by one or more settings input by a welding operator.
Many welding applications, such as welding of aerospace parts, require the operator to utilize a TIG process, typically for finer or more intricate welds. Such intricate forms of welding a desired part may be sensitive to a variety of weld conditions and parameters, and, accordingly, it may be necessary for an operator to specify a large number of parameters prior to the welding operation. In some cases, each time a welding operator performs a given weld, the welding operator must repeat the set up process for the welding power source, thus reducing the efficiency and accuracy of the welding process, particularly in instances in which the weld to be performed in similar to a previously performed weld. Further, in some instances, the welding operator may need several different setups for the welding of a single part, particularly in cases in which a given procedure has multiple steps. Accordingly, there exists a need for systems that enable a more efficient setup procedure for the operator to follow with minimal inconvenience for the welding operator, particularly in environments where the welding operation is intricate.